American Relief Act, 2025

(Sec. 3101) This section extends through March 31, 2025, funding for the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program, the Community Health Center Fund, and the National Health Service Corps. The program supports education and training of medical students in primary care residency programs in community-based ambulatory patient care centers. The fund supports (1) grants for outpatient health care facilities that serve medically underserved populations; and (2) the National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and student loan repayment awards to health care providers who agree to work in areas with health care provider shortages.

(Sec. 3102) This section extends funding through March 31, 2025, for the Special Diabetes Program for Type I Diabetes and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians. The Special Diabetes Program for Type I Diabetes supports research on the prevention and cure of Type I diabetes, and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians supports diabetes treatment and prevention for tribal populations.

(Sec. 3103) This section extends through March 31, 2025, the authority that allows states and tribes to request the temporary reassignment of state and local health department personnel who are funded through certain federal programs to immediately address a public health emergency.

It also extends through March 31, 2025, provisions that prohibit the disclosure of information about Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) programs that could compromise national security (e.g., information regarding biomedical threats).

The section extends through March 31, 2025, provisions that authorize HHS to engage with developers of medical countermeasures, and that provide for related antitrust exemptions, for the purpose of furthering product development.

Additionally, the section extends through March 31, 2025, the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters, the National Advisory Committee on Seniors and Disasters, and the National Advisory Committee on Individuals with Disabilities and Disasters.

It also extends through March 31, 2025, the authority of HHS to directly appoint candidates to positions within the National Disaster Medical System if HHS determines the number of personnel in the system is insufficient to address a public health emergency or potential public health emergency. The National Disaster Medical System is a partnership between HHS, the Department of Defense, and other federal departments that responds to public health and other emergencies, including by deploying medical response teams.

(Sec. 3201) This section extends through March 31, 2025, certain increased payment adjustments for low-volume hospitals under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system.

(Sec. 3202) This section extends through March 31, 2025, the Medicare-Dependent Hospital Program, which provides additional payments to certain small rural hospitals that have a high proportion of Medicare patients.

(Sec. 3203) This section extends through March 31, 2025, certain increased payment adjustments for ground ambulance services in rural and other areas under Medicare.

(Sec. 3204) This section extends through March 31, 2025, funding for certain Medicare quality-measurement activities.

(Sec. 3205) This section extends through March 31, 2025, funding for state health insurance programs, area agencies on aging, aging and disability resource centers, and technical assistance related to outreach and enrollment with respect to Medicare and other programs.

(Sec. 3206) This section extends through March 31, 2025, certain minimum adjustments to the work geographic index with respect to payments for physician services under Medicare.

(Sec. 3207) This section extends through March 31, 2025, certain telehealth flexibilities under Medicare.

Specifically, the section (1) removes geographic restrictions on originating sites (i.e., the location of the beneficiary); (2) allows the home of the beneficiary to serve as the originating site for all services; (3) allows audiologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists to furnish telehealth services; (4) allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to serve as the distant site (i.e., the location of the health care practitioner); (5) delays implementation of certain in-person evaluation requirements for mental health telehealth services; (6) expands coverage to include audio-only services for evaluation and management and behavioral health services; and (7) allows, for purposes of hospice care recertification under Medicare, physicians and nurse practitioners to fulfill the requirement of a face-to-face encounter with the hospice patient via telehealth.

(Sec. 3208) This section extends through March 31, 2025, the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program under Medicare. (The program allows hospitals to treat certain patients from emergency departments or inpatient hospital beds at home.)

(Sec. 3209) This section extends through March 31, 2025, coverage under the Medicare prescription drug benefit of prescription oral antiviral drugs that were authorized in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

(Sec. 3210) This section reduces funding for the Medicare Improvement Fund beginning in FY2026.

(Sec. 3301) This section extends through March 31, 2025, funding for the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Program. This program supports projects to implement sexual risk avoidance education that teaches participants to voluntarily refrain from nonmarital sexual activities.

(Sec. 3302) This section extends through March 31, 2025, funding for the Personal Responsibility Education Program. This program provides grants to states to educate young people about abstinence and contraception for prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The program also supports pregnant and parenting youth.

(Sec. 3303) This section extends through March 31, 2025, the Family-to-Family Health Information Centers Program, which is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The program awards grants to family-run organizations to support the provision of information and peer support to families of children with special health care needs.

DIVISION D--EXTENSION OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMS

(Sec. 4101) This section extends programs authorized by the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (commonly known as the 2018 farm bill) until the later of (1) September 30, 2025; (2) the date specified in the provision of the act; or (3) the date in effect for programs authorized by the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024.

This section extends and amends Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity programs, including by

- extending various programs for covered commodities, a loan commodity, sugarcane, or sugar beets for the 2025 crop year;

- extending the Special Competitive Provisions for Extra Long Staple Cotton program through July 31, 2026;

- extending the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments through the 2025 crop year for a covered commodity;

- extending the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program through December 31, 2025;

- limiting the 25% premium discount for the DMC program in 2025 to participating dairy operations that received the discount in 2024;

- allowing Dairy Forward Pricing Program contracts to be extended through September 30, 2028 (previously September 30, 2027);

- extending the suspension of permanent price support authorities for the 2025 crop year for covered commodities, cotton, and sugar and through December 31, 2025, for milk; and

- extending the suspension of provisions related to corn and wheat marketing quotas for wheat planted for harvest in calendar year 2025.

This section extends the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust through FY2025 to allow for eligible commodities to remain in the trust until September 30, 2025. The program makes funds available to provide emergency food assistance to developing countries.

This section extends through FY2025 a provision that prohibits USDA from declaring the Grazinglands Research Laboratory in El Reno, Oklahoma, to be excess or surplus federal property, or otherwise conveying or transferring the property.

This section extends through the 2025 crop year the Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP) for Bioenergy Producers, which allows the Commodity Credit Corporation to purchase surplus sugar from processors for resale to ethanol producers for ethanol fuel. Further, this section extends through September 1, 2025, requirements for USDA to provide notice to eligible entities and bioenergy producers of the quantity of eligible commodities that must be made available for purchase and sale for the crop year.

Further, this section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain commodities-related mandatory funding that was provided for

- the Farm Service Agency to implement USDA commodity programs;

- the Pima Agriculture Cotton Trust Fund, which provides assistance to reduce the economic injury to domestic manufacturers resulting from tariffs on cotton fabric that are higher than tariffs on certain apparel articles made of cotton fabric;

- the Agriculture Wool Apparel Manufacturers Trust Fund, which provides assistance to reduce the economic injury to domestic manufacturers resulting from tariffs on wool fabric that are higher than tariffs on certain apparel articles made of wool fabric; and

- the Wool Research and Promotion Program, which provides grants to assist U.S. wool producers with improving the quality of wool and with developing and promoting the wool market.

This section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain conservation-related mandatory funding for FY2024 and FY2025 that was provided for

- the Grassroots Source Water Protection Program, a joint project with the Farm Service Agency and the National Rural Water Association (a nonprofit water and wastewater utility membership organization), which is designed to help prevent pollution of surface and ground water that is used as the primary source of drinking water by rural residents;

- the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program, which provides funding to help state and tribal governments encourage landowners to allow public access to their land for hunting, fishing, and other wildlife-dependent recreation;

- certain funding under the Conservation Reserve Program for forest management incentive payments (e.g., payments for thinning and other practices to improve the condition of resources, promote forest management, or enhance wildlife habitat) and to facilitate the transfer of land subject to contracts under the program to beginning, veteran, or socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers; and

- the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program, which responds to the threat feral swine pose to agriculture, native ecosystems, and human and animal health.

This section also specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply with respect to certain limitations on payments under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program.

This section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain mandatory funding that was provided for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). TEFAP provides food commodities (and cash support for storage and distribution costs) through states to local emergency feeding organizations (e.g., food banks).

This section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain mandatory funding that was provided for the Rural Economic Development Loan & Grant Program, which provides funding for rural projects through local utility organizations.

This section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain research-related mandatory funding that was provided for

- scholarships for students at 1890 Institutions through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) program that provides grants to 1890 Institutions (i.e., historically Black colleges and universities that belong to the U.S. land-grant university system) for awarding scholarships to students who intend to pursue a career in the food and agricultural sciences;

- the Urban, Indoor, and other Emerging Agricultural Production Research, Education, and Extension Initiative, a NIFA competitive grant program; and

- the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, a nonprofit corporation established to advance the research mission of USDA by supporting research activities focused on key problems of national and international significance.

This section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain energy-related mandatory funding that was provided for

- the biobased markets program (i.e., BioPreferred Program) which promotes biobased products through mandatory purchasing requirements for federal agencies and their contractors and through a voluntary labeling initiative for biobased products;

- the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program, which provides loan guarantees to assist in the development of new and emerging technologies for the development of advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals, and biobased product manufacturing; and

- the bioenergy program for advanced biofuels (i.e., Advanced Biofuel Payment Program) which provides payments to fuel producers to support and expand production of advanced biofuels (i.e., not derived from corn starch).

This section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain horticulture-related mandatory funding that was provided for

- USDA to collect and report data on the production and marketing of organic agricultural products;

- modernization and improvement of international trade technology systems and data collection for imports of organically produced agricultural products;

- the Organic Certification Cost Share Program, which provides cost-share assistance to producers and handlers of agricultural products who are obtaining or renewing their certification under the National Organic Program; and

- the multiple crop and pesticide use survey of farmers conducted by the USDA Office of Pest Management Policy.

This section specifies that the extension of farm bill programs does not apply to certain mandatory funding that was provided for

- the Sheep Production and Marketing Grant Program, which seeks to strengthen and enhance the production and marketing of sheep and sheep products in the United States; and

- the Emergency Citrus Disease Research and Development Trust Fund, which funds a program that aims to bring together scientists to find scientifically sound and financially sustainable solutions to Huanglongbing (i.e., citrus greening, a bacterial disease spread by an insect that feeds on citrus).

This section also extends various reporting requirements authorized by the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018.

Finally, this section must be applied and administered as if it had been enacted on September 30, 2024.

DIVISION E--OTHER MATTERS

(Sec. 5101) This section extends until March 14, 2025, the availability of funds for customer education initiatives and administrative expenses of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Office of Customer Education and Outreach and the Whistleblower Program. This section is retroactively effective beginning September 30, 2024.

(Sec. 5102) This section extends until March 14, 2025, the authority of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice to take certain actions to mitigate a credible threat to certain facilities or assets from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). These include certain facilities that are located in the United States and identified as high-risk and a potential target for unlawful UAS activity.

(Sec. 5103) This section extends until March 14, 2025, the special assessment on nonindigent persons or entities convicted of certain offenses involving sexual abuse or human trafficking. The assessment funds programs for human-trafficking survivors.

(Sec. 5104) This section extends the authority for DHS’s National Cybersecurity Protection System and related reporting requirements until March 14, 2025.

(Sec. 5105) This section extends until March 31, 2025, the temporary scheduling order issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration to place fentanyl-related substances in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.